Where did July go?

The seventh month of 2022 comes to a close this weekend and we head into the “dog days” of August. Before you know it, we’ll hit Labor Day and then the campaigns shift into high gear.

We take a look back at the week that was with our Ups and Downs from July 25-29.

Doug Mastriano. While the GOP candidate for governor put some distance between himself and Gab founder Andrew Torba, tweeting that he did not speak for him nor the campaign, and renounced anti-semitism, a pair of polls showed him trailing in the race by double digits. Good news: GOP establishment members appears to be warming to the candidate. Bad news: Was he a ‘point person’ for Trump acolytes in the fake elector scheme?

John Fetterman. The Democratic candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat has opened the gap between himself and Mehmet Oz in a pair of recent polls. Both polls have the lieutenant governor ahead by double digits and hovering around 47 percent.

Josh Shapiro. The Democratic candidate for governor was the recipient of good news in the form of a pair of polls indicating that he has a 10-point-plus lead in the race. Blueprint Polling and Fox News both have the attorney general over 50 percent. His social media trolling of his opponent also still appears to be making inroads with the electorate.

Mehmet Oz. The GOP candidate for the open U.S. Senate seat has not taken advantage of his opponent’s absence from the campaign trail. Oz spent part of his time in Pennsylvania and the other part of the time in Palm Beach until at least June 9, waiting it out and doing some fundraising. His first post-primary event was June 10. Then, at the end of June, Oz flew off to Europe, specifically to Ireland, to see family until early July to the chagrin of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Mike Kelly. The 16th District Congressman now confirms that members of his staff were involved in an effort to alter the count of electoral college votes in the 2020 presidential election. But Kelly continues to insist he was unaware of the effort — even if it included a longtime top aide. He said his focus had been on “things that affect this district directly. … I really don’t dwell on stuff that happened almost two years ago.”

Glenn Thompson. The PA-15 congressman was one of 157 Republicans who voted against codifying the right to same-sex marriage last week. Three days later, he attended the wedding of his son, who is gay. “The Thompsons are very happy to welcome their new son-in-law into their family.”

Carrie DelRosso. The Republican candidate for lieutenant governor told supporters in Cambria County to stop filming her because she worried about being in a Fox News campaign ad “saying something wrong. Unfortunately, those comments that are taken out of context are the biggest problem that I see on the campaign trail.”

Scott Dunn. The Fayette County commissioner testified Thursday to the Commonwealth Court about his county’s refusal to certify primary election results. Democracy Docket tweeted that “he believes that there is a lot of ambiguity around the court orders and state laws about if undated mail-in ballots should be counted. PA attorney: “So you chose not to follow this court’s order as a result?” Dunn: “Yes.”

Brian Fitzpatrick. The Republican incumbent in PA-01 picked up a key endorsement from Giffords.org which noted that he has put partisan politics aside to focus on the need to protect everyday Americans from gun violence.

Election officials. At the meeting of the National Association of State Elections Directors, officials warned that the next few election cycles will be affected by supply chain issues, creating shortages of ballot paper and election hardware.